The South African Financial Cycle and its Relation to Household Deleveraging

This paper considers the extent to which South African households have deleveraged, since the global financial crisis of 2007/2008. We extend the official South African Reserve Bank business cycle methodology to date financial cycles, from which we identify the peaks and troughs of the South African financial cycle going back to 1966. Our composite financial cycle index peaks in April 1974, January 1984 and May 2007; it has bottomed out in July 1979 and February 1999. Thus, we still await the trough. We further compare and contrast the deleveraging process in the current downward phase to the experiences from previous financial cycles. We find that the average period of the financial cycle in South Africa is much longer (approximately 17.3 years) than that of the business cycle (approximately 5.8 years), and that deleveraging has not yet matched the degree of deleveraging seen in previous downward phases. Our results suggest that further deleveraging is necessary, before we can expect to turn the financial corner.     

Monetary policy shocks and exchange rates in Asian countries

In this paper, we empirically investigate the effects of monetary policy shocks on exchange rates in Asian countries. To do so, we use VAR models which impose sign restrictions on impulse responses to identify monetary policy shocks. We find that contractionary monetary policy shocks lead to significant exchange rate appreciation in Malaysia, the People’s Republic of China, and the Republic of Korea. However, in India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, we find either a significant depreciation or no significant effect. These results suggest that an interest rate increase (or decrease) may not necessarily shield Asian countries from exchange rate depreciation (or appreciation) pressure following a U.S. interest rate increase (or decrease).     

产业视角下环京津山区贫困县农业品牌建设路径研究*——以张家口市崇礼区为例

[目的]农业品牌建设是连接农业生产与市场消费的有效途径,是贫困地区特色农产品产销对接的重要抓手,在环京津贫困地区率先实现农业品牌建设的突破,示范意义重大。然而,针对贫困县的研究相对缺乏,农业品牌建设实践中脱离产业实际的问题比较常见,亟需路径探索。[方法]采用文献梳理、案例分析、实地和书面调研等方法,以张家口市崇礼区为例,对环京津山区贫困县农业品牌建设的现状进行分析,对路径与战略作出谋划。[结果]环京津山区贫困县的农业产业具有品质优势、错季优势和物流优势,受到资源短缺、投入不足、人才匮乏的限制,也面临居民消费升级、京津冀协同发展、产业扶贫等机遇。[结论]在产业视角下推进环京津山区贫困县农业品牌建设,应当重点实施品质农业发展行动,加强品牌营销,培育专业队伍,开展小而美、中高端、精准化的特色农业品牌建设。同时,建议上级有关部门在组织保障、政策倾斜、指导服务上给予有力支持。     

新疆棉农残膜回收行为影响因素及实证研究*——基于棉农的调研数据

［目的］为响应农业农村部“农业绿色发展五大行动”，加强农业面源污染防治，缓解新疆棉田残膜危害，基于新疆棉农的问卷调查研究棉农的残膜回收行为。［方法］采用描述性统计和Logistic回归模型分析影响新疆棉农残膜回收行为的因素。［结果］（1）新疆农用地膜回收率低，地膜污染形势严峻。（2）棉农对残膜危害认知缺乏，对残膜回收的间接价值认识不足，影响新疆残膜回收效率。（3）残膜回收的成本收益是影响棉农残膜回收行为的关键因素，其他如棉农年龄、种棉年限、对残膜危害的认知等自身特征，以及农户劳动力数量、政府对残膜污染的关注程度等因素对棉农的残膜回收行为有重要影响。［结论］网络及电视广播等现代媒体对棉农的残膜危害认知水平有较大影响，棉农更愿意采用成本更节约的焚烧、堆地的残膜处理方式。因此提出引导棉农残膜回收、提高棉田残膜回收效率的对策建议。     

生态文明建设背景财政扶持、林权改革对林业生产效率的影响

基于2000—2016年中国省际面板数据,利用DEA-Malmquist指数法对中国林业生产效率的区域差异和时序变化进行研究,运用面板Tobit模型检验财政扶持对林业生产效率的影响并验证林权改革对二者关系的调节作用。研究发现:在生态文明建设背景下,林业生产效率存在显著的区域差异;技术进步对于全要素生产率的提升起到重要推进作用;财政扶持与林权改革均对林业生产效率产生了正向影响,但林权改革并没有对财政扶持与林业生产效率的关系产生积极调节作用。因此,各省份应当通过加大政府扶持力度、优化投资方式、深化集体林权制度改革等措施促进林业生产效率提升。     

Large scale infrastructure investment and economic performance – a case study of Oresund

We analyse the effect of a large scale infrastructure investment, namely the construction of the Oresund bridge, on the local and supra-regional economy. We employ the synthetic control method to construct counterfactual regions that mimic the trajectory of Malmo and Southern Sweden without treatment. Our results point to a positive effect. However, placebo tests in space and time only reveal statistical significance at a larger regional level. The results suggest that spillover effects are eminent.     

State‐Dependent Forward Guidance and the Problem of Inconsistent Announcements

Forward guidance can be provided as an unconditional promise, i.e. commitment to a specific low policy rate. Alternatively, the promise may include an escape clause, i.e. a condition defining the state of the economy under which the central bank would not keep such a low rate and, instead, it would revert to setting policy under discretion. The escape clause can be expressed as a threshold in terms of a specific variable. The present paper shows that, when such a threshold is expressed in terms of an endogenous variable (e.g. output, inflation), there are cases where it becomes impossible for the central bank to act in a way that is consistent with its promise. Consistency imposes limits on the policy rate that can be set since reverting immediately to the optimal discretionary rate can be incompatible with exceeding the threshold.     

组织支持感与员工创造力——相对组织支持感和情感承诺的影响

从自我提升视角出发，基于社会比较理论与社会交换理论，分析组织支持感影响员工创造力的过程机制，相对组织支持感的调节作用以及情感承诺与创造力之间的曲线关系。基于458份企业员工与主管的配对样本，研究结果表明：相对组织支持感显著正向调节了组织支持感与情感承诺之间的关系，情感承诺与员工创造力呈显著的倒U型关系，情感承诺在组织支持感与创造力关系之间起到了瞬时中介作用。研究结果拓展了对组织支持感的影响机制及其边界条件的分析，深化了情感承诺与员工创造力关系的检验。     

Assessing the effects of policies on China’s outward foreign direct investment

This paper discusses the determinants of China’s outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) with a special focus on the role of government policy. In particular, we investigate the types of policies that are most influential in promoting OFDI. Our main contribution is to analyse, for the first time, China’s OFDI policies by means of quantitative indicators. We refine policies definitions and distinguish between Regulation Policies, Service Policies, Promotion Policies and Supervision Policies, and we develop a methodology for collecting, screening and coding policies; then we create new indices to capture different types of policies. We find that Regulation Policies, Service Policies and the general attitude of the government have significant effects on China’s OFDI at the national level.     

Share pledging,payout policy,and the value of cash holdings

Share pledging for insiders’ personal bank loans is associated with the agency problems of insider risk aversion and stock price crash risk. We examine the relation between insider share pledging and the value of cash holdings using the pledging data of listed firms in Taiwan. We find that the value of cash holdings is lower for pledging firms, especially for those that are relatively more risk averse. Pledging firms that repurchase shares have a higher marginal value of cash than those with other payout methods, likely due to the role of repurchases in reducing the stock price crash risk. Our results show how insiders’ personal financing incentives arising from share pledging would affect the value of cash holdings from the perspective of agency problems and payout policy.